__________________ "So let me get this straight. We have the event of the year on TV with millions watching around the world... and people want a punt, pass, and kick competition to be the halftime entertainment?? Folks, don't quit your day jobs."- Matty

While the US government’s manned space programmes appear stuck in Earth’s orbit, this audacious project aims to kickstart efforts towards interstellar space travel – journeys over vast distances to stars outside of our solar system. It is driven by ideas that range from ensuring the survival of the human species and searching for intelligent alien life to the desire to overhaul space propulsion and just pure academic endeavor. Science fiction favourites from wormholes and warp drives to light speed and lasers are all on the table, meaning parts of the project can end up sounding like the wish list for an episode of Star Trek.

First, as DNA databases grow, “easy to catch” offenders are deterred or incarcerated quickly, so new crimes are committed by more elusive offenders, resulting in new crimes that are more difficult to solve. Second, as police officers become more familiar with DNA and other forensic evidence, they grow more aware of the limited accuracy of tools they once relied upon—like eyewitness testimony—and are increasingly selective in whom they arrest, resulting in fewer but more accurate arrests.

And:

The cost of collecting and analyzing each DNA sample is less than $40, according to a US Department of Justice estimate, and less than $20 in several states. The marginal cost of analyzing new DNA samples continues to fall as technology improves, and DNA databases exhibit tremendous returns to scale. There are large startup costs for crime lab equipment and computer databases, but the cost of expanding the program is relatively small.

First, as DNA databases grow, “easy to catch” offenders are deterred or incarcerated quickly, so new crimes are committed by more elusive offenders, resulting in new crimes that are more difficult to solve. Second, as police officers become more familiar with DNA and other forensic evidence, they grow more aware of the limited accuracy of tools they once relied upon—like eyewitness testimony—and are increasingly selective in whom they arrest, resulting in fewer but more accurate arrests.

And:

The cost of collecting and analyzing each DNA sample is less than $40, according to a US Department of Justice estimate, and less than $20 in several states. The marginal cost of analyzing new DNA samples continues to fall as technology improves, and DNA databases exhibit tremendous returns to scale. There are large startup costs for crime lab equipment and computer databases, but the cost of expanding the program is relatively small.

doesn't make sense to me, they take your fingerprints and your image, but not your dna...

First, as DNA databases grow, “easy to catch” offenders are deterred or incarcerated quickly, so new crimes are committed by more elusive offenders, resulting in new crimes that are more difficult to solve. Second, as police officers become more familiar with DNA and other forensic evidence, they grow more aware of the limited accuracy of tools they once relied upon—like eyewitness testimony—and are increasingly selective in whom they arrest, resulting in fewer but more accurate arrests.

And:

The cost of collecting and analyzing each DNA sample is less than $40, according to a US Department of Justice estimate, and less than $20 in several states. The marginal cost of analyzing new DNA samples continues to fall as technology improves, and DNA databases exhibit tremendous returns to scale. There are large startup costs for crime lab equipment and computer databases, but the cost of expanding the program is relatively small.

Yeah, but that also opens up some questions on the validity of these DNA tests. There have been several cases (with identical twins and what not) where it becomes nearly impossible to determine who did the crime.

Secondly, there also exists an unknown number of people who are Chimeras (other than Jason's family). They are people who actually possess two different strands of DNA. For instance in a maternity case they almost took a woman's children away from her because they didn't match her DNA. It wasn't until they had someone watch another child exit her womb, DNA that child, and come up with the same non-match result to hold up in court.

There are some serious drawbacks to DNA testing that need to be explored, but overall its a much more accurate method than eye witness accounts.

There is no unified “self” that generates internally consistent and seamlessly coherent beliefs devoid of conflict. Instead we are a collection of distinct but interacting modules often at odds with one another. The module that leads us to crave sweet and fatty foods in the short term is in conflict with the module that monitors our body image and health in the long term. The module for cooperation is in conflict with the one for competition, as are the modules for altruism and avarice or the modules for truth telling and lying.

__________________ "So let me get this straight. We have the event of the year on TV with millions watching around the world... and people want a punt, pass, and kick competition to be the halftime entertainment?? Folks, don't quit your day jobs."- Matty

Can we please keep this to legit science stuff and not bullshit gimmicks like Lochness monster or bigfoot? Start a sci-fi thread and post that in there if you wish.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Is this also the sci-fi thread?

Dear god no.

__________________ "So let me get this straight. We have the event of the year on TV with millions watching around the world... and people want a punt, pass, and kick competition to be the halftime entertainment?? Folks, don't quit your day jobs."- Matty

Thierry Jamin, who has investigated several burial sites in the North of Cusco, listened carefully the story of David Crespy. Quickly he wants to confirm the facts behind the story. Accompanied by archaeologists of the Regional Office of the Culture in Cusco, he was able to visit the site several times. His preliminary findings are unequivocal: it is indeed an entrance, blocked by the Incas at an undetermined moment of History. This one is strangely similar to a burial site, such as the ones Thierry Jamin and his companions often find in the valleys of Lacco and Chunchusmayo.

In order to confirm the existence of cavities in the basement of the building, in December 2011 Thierry and his team submit and official request to the Ministry of Culture in Lima, to perform a geophysical survey with the help of electromagnetic (EM) conductivity instruments. This license was granted a few months later.

Realized between April 9th and April 12th 2012, the electromagnetic survey not only confirmed the presence of an underground room but several! Just Behind the famous entrance, a staircase was also discovered. The two main paths seem to lead to specific chambers, including to the main squared one. The different techniques used by the French researcher(s), (Molecular Frequencies Discriminator) allowed them to highlight the presence of important archaeological material, including deposits of metal and a large quantity of gold and silver.